The item in the Briefs section of the July 29 Secaucus Reporter reporting the theft - there is nothing else to call it - of Secaucus taxpayers' money by the Meadowlands Commission was ire-provoking in itself, but the accompanying article reporting the Commission's meddling in the affairs of the Secaucus fire department was infuriating.

Where did this bunch of unelected knuckleheads get the authority to do so? We have to ask their permission to put a front door on a fire house?!! You gotta be kidding me.

Secaucus does not need the Meadowlands Commission to tell it how to manage its affairs with respect to its portion of the Meadowlands district or anything else, for that matter. Secaucus is an enlightened, well-governed town, thank you. We don't need any butinskys. The Commission was created by an act of the Legislature. It can likewise be un-created, something I will write to Assemblyman Prieto about.

This year over $250 of my real estate tax will be paid to the Commission. What my wife and I receive in return is invisible to me. Let the record show that with less than 5 percent of the population of the municipalities comprising the Meadowlands district, Secaucus pays 36 per cent of taxes paid to the Commission. Did someone say highway robbery? Let the record also show that among the "deserving" towns receiving - as opposed to giving - money from the commission are North Arlington and Rutherford. I was raised in Lyndhurst, which is between those two towns and know them well. Believe me, they ain't poor and deserving. Start at Route 3 west and take a stroll down Park Avenue, Rutherford and check out the houses. You will see what I mean.